SCIENCE: New Finding Grazes Universe’s Mystery

Experiments conducted at various research centres in Europe have led scientists to recreate the state of matter as it was some millionths of a second after the Big Bang, the cosmic explosion which is thought to have created the universe.

SCIENCE-LATAM: Argentina and Brazil Step Up Cooperation

Argentina and Brazil, the largest members of Mercosur, South America's leading trade bloc, have decided to step up scientific cooperation in areas like nuclear and space technology and create mechanisms for carrying out joint projects.

TECHNOLOGY-BRAZIL: Technicians Battle-Ready for Y2K Bug

Brazil's Defence Ministry has prepared a veritable war plan to confront the gamut of possible problems arising from potential computer failures at midnight Friday, Dec 31 as the nation greets the year 2000 (Y2K).

TECHNOLOGY-LATAM: Co-operative Attack against Millenium Bug

South American technology experts claim the region is ready to handle potential computer system failures at midnight Friday, when the much anticipated year 2000 finally arrives - and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) played a key role in making their claims possible.

SCIENCE-BRAZIL: Failed Space Rocket Defers Market-Access Dreams

Brazil failed again in its attempt to launch a satellite with nationally-made rockets, postponing the country's dream of joining the select group of nations that dominate the world aerospace market.

TECHNOLOGY-GUYANA: Opposition to Aerospace Firm Mounts

At first almost everyone embraced the project. Thoughts of Guyana on the world map for reasons other than its near pristine tropical rainforest and its gold production, were likely on the minds of many when government first said it was rolling out the red carpet to an American company interested in building a space port in the remote northwestern region.

TECHNOLOGY-GUYANA: Remove the Iron Grip, Say Citizens

The American-owned Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) is closely watching the dismantling of the longstanding Cable and Wireless monopoly in the Caribbean even as some groups in Guyana continue to call on government to remove the company's iron grip on the country's telephone service.

SOCIETY-TECHNOLOGY: Internet a Tool for Democracy?

Eleven years ago when Brazilian activist Chico Mendes was murdered while battling for peoples' land rights in the Amazon, telegrams and faxes poured into the Brazilian government offices demanding the arrest and prosecution of his killers - even before local media had carried the story.

TRADE-BRAZIL: Aeronautics Company Heads Exports

The Brazilian Aeronautics Company, Embraer, has shot to the head of the class in exports, feeding Brazil's national pride by competing in the market for high-tech products.

AGRICULTURE: Canadians Divided Over Labelling Bio-tech Food

Government efforts to placate widespread concern over genetically engineered food stumbled this week when Canadian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) boycotted a conference to discuss voluntary labelling of modified food products.

COMMUNICATIONS-NIGERIA: New Telephone Fees Discourage Investors

Nigeria's decision to slam a new licence fee of 100 million US Dollars on private companies wishing to operate cellular telephone business may affect the government's plan to provide telephone service to every Nigerian. The new fee, introduced on Oct 26, is about 1,000 percent higher than the 350,000 US Dollars announced a year ago when the firms involved in the cellular telephone business, using the Global System for Mobile (GSM), were granted permission to operate in Nigeria. Announcing the policy, Mohammed Arzika, Minister of Communications, said the old fees paid by GSM operators was still too low compared to similar rates paid by operators in other African countries, like Egypt and Morocco where, he said, licence fees have been pegged at 516 million US Dollars and one billion US Dollars respectively. The policy has sparked a heated debate in Nigeria, with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications accusing the minister of unveiling the policy without the consent of parliament. Ernest Ndukwe, President of Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), says he prefers the spreading of the licence fees over a period of time to enable "serious" businesspeople to invest in Nigeria's telecommunications industry. Before the new policy, Nigeria's state-owned Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) had announced plans to install three million new lines, both fixed and mobile, into the network in the next two years. More than six billion US dollars investment is required to meet immediate targets of more than two million fixed lines and two million cellular lines in the next two years in the West African country of 110 million people, according to government officials. The government in September ordered the installation fee for fixed telephone line reduced from 50,000 naira (about 500 US Dollars) to 20,000 naira (about 200 US Dollars) as a means of making Nigerians to have access to the service. The government, believing NITEL's report that 300,000 lines were awaiting subscribers, had reduced the fees. But it turned out that there were 6.75 million applications on the waiting list.

TECHNOLOGY-GUYANA: Texas Firm is in

Thanks to the abundance of under- utilised land in Guyana, this country is about to get its first commercial satellite launch facility and officials here say that the mere presence of the firm will do for the country what a million promotional brochures could not do - attract millions of dollars in investment.

TECHNOLOGY-US: Labels For US Bio-tech Food?

A group of US lawmakers said Wednesday they would introduce legislation soon to require the mandatory labeling of all food containing trace amounts of genetically engineered products.

TECHNOLOGY-LATAM: Y2K Threat Looms Over Region

The scenario is not as chaotic as it was just a few months ago, but threats persist that could affect day-to-day life in Latin America beginning on the first day of the new century, due to what is known as the Millennium Bug or Y2K.

TECHNOLOGY-CARIBBEAN: Rocket Launch on Hold

It does not seem that a commercial satellite will blast off from an American rocket launching pad in northwestern Guyana anytime soon following mounting opposition from environmentalists.

TECHNOLOGY: Africa Urged To Develop Its Own Communications System

Malian president, Alpha Omar Konare, whose country has one telephone line for every 500 people, seems to be the right African leader to talk about the need for the continent to own and develop its own Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Youth Demand Access To Information Technology

African youth have demanded access to Information Communication Technologies (ITCs) as a tool to empower themselves.

TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Lagging Behind In The Information Superhighway

Ethiopian Beterkawa has never made or received a telephone call before. He is not even sure if his wife has ever made a telephone call.

TECHNOLOGY-INDIA: Slow Automation Saves India From Y2K Bug

India which earned 2.5 billion dollars providing Y2K software solutions to advanced countries has itself been spared the millennium bug largely because of slow automation.

TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Globalization and the Information Age

Governments, the private sector, civil society and representatives of bilateral and multilateral organizations converge on Addis Ababa this weekend aiming to position Africa to benefit from globalisation and the Information Age.

SCIENCE: Brazil-China Alliance Disputes Space Technology Market

The space technology alliance between Brazil and China will produce its first strategic result this week - the launch of the CBERS-1 satellite, with which the programme will begin to dispute a market dominated by the industrialised North.